By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida. All rights reserved.
TALLAHASSEE — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis continued to amass a pile of political cash in April, bringing in more than $10 million as he seeks a second term in the state Capitol.
Perhaps more telling, DeSantis’ political committee and campaign were sitting on a combined total of about $105 million as of April 30, according to finance reports filed Tuesday at the Florida Division of Elections.
Congressman Charlie Crist, the leading fundraiser among Democratic gubernatorial candidates, totaled slightly less than $6 million in cash on hand through his political committee and campaign account.
DeSantis raised nearly $8.16 million in April through his political committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, and about $2.3 million through his campaign account, the reports show. Meanwhile, the committee and campaign spent about $1.17 million.
The campaign account received 25,901 contributions in April, ranging from $1 to the legal maximum of $3,000. Meanwhile, the committee, which is not bound by the contribution limits, received 19 contributions of $100,000 or more that combined to total $3.06 million.
Among the big contributions were $750,000 from the Republican Governors Association, $100,000 from a Florida Medical Association PAC and $100,000 from JM Family Enterprises, a Deerfield Beach-based company in the automotive industry.
The DeSantis committee ended April with about $99.1 million in cash on hand, while the campaign had $6.46 million, the reports indicate.
It has long been clear that DeSantis, who is widely mentioned as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, would dwarf Democratic challengers in raising money.
But the newly filed April reports show an exponential widening of the gap. Also, the Democratic candidate will have to spend money to win an August primary, while DeSantis can use his money for the general election.
Crist’s campaign raised $550,422 in April and had about $1.76 million in cash on hand as of April 30, according to the reports. His committee, Friends of Charlie Crist, raised $460,325 and had nearly $4.19 million on hand.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is battling Crist in the primary, raised $140,330 for her campaign account, which had $1.26 million on hand as of April 30. Fried’s political committee, Florida Consumers First, raised $293,708 and had about $2.59 million on hand.
Miami Sen. Annette Taddeo, the third prominent Democrat in the gubernatorial race, continued to trail in raising money. Her campaign and the political committee Fight Back Florida combined to bring in about $108,000 during the month. Combined, they had about $706,000 in cash on hand as of April 30, the reports show.
Note: Gov. DeSantis held a private fundraiser in Pensacola on Tuesday morning. Those numbers will show up in the next campaign finance report.
Trump, his obsessed cult, and the morally bankrupt republicans who slobber allegiance on him took us a good deal of the way towards becoming an oligarchic dictatorship–literally. If January 6th had been successful, Trump would right now be dictator of the United States, and we would no longer be clinging to our democracy. It would already be over.
DeSantis will be more than happy to get us across the finish line of fascism, and has already turned Florida into an authoritarian hell, while distracting his base with woke culture wars. For anyone familiar with historical precedent on how fascism takes flame in societies that were previously democratic, everything he is doing is textbook fascism, to a T. He is methodically checking off the list of the elements that need controlling for one person to gain total control, and if he wins reelection there will be literally nothing to stop him but a thin blue federal line from doing absolutely anything he cares to do. Then will come, quietly at first, all the ways that seizing property typically happens under authoritarian governments. The probate court is already seeded with the start of that.
It is the height of absurdity and personality cultism to think this man has led Florida to a strong place economically. That’s certainly not how the average citizen experiences it. We’ve already got an out and out disaster with his DEREGATHON allowing crooked contractors to run amok–a screaming problem in Pensacola, and particularly East Hill and other historic neighborhoods in the City, that the nepotistic DBPR will do nothing about–dovetailing with the insurance crisis. Right now, tens if not hundreds of thousands of Floridians are getting kicked off their insurance, including Citizens last resort, in advance of the June 1st reinsurance mark. Auto insurance in Florida is some of the highest in the nation, also. FPL continues to run amok, without a peep out of the Florida GOP or DeSantis on any plans to fix it. Commissioner Bergosh just noted in this morning’s COW that Fox and MSNBC both place Pensacola/Escambia in one of the top ten markets in an affordable housing crisis, but other areas of Florida aren’t far behind. And if the Florida GOP doesn’t stop feeding its base with institutional bigotry in lieu of fixing their mess, it could very well end in the state of Florida’s bond rating dropping.
If DeSantis wins reelection, it will most likely only take another couple of years for Florida to be in more ungodly fiscal and regulatory messes than those he and his slavish legislature have already pummeled the citizens with. Perhaps then people will wake up.
I doubt it, though. The fervor for fascism–which is always cloaked as freedom from suppression when it first gets going– might already be too far down the road. We’ll see how many of the voters have been indoctrinated sufficiently with the results of the upcoming election.